Papers consider spread of bird flu

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/6349125.stm

Version 0 of 1.

How to stop bird flu from spreading is the puzzle occupying Saturday's papers.

The Financial Times and the Guardian are among the broadsheets reporting that senior figures say turkey products may have to be withdrawn from sale.

The Times is one of many papers reporting that the virus was probably brought to Britain in infected meat from Hungary.

For the Daily Mail, "all the official assumptions" about how bird flu spreads "seem hopelessly wide of the mark".

'Empire disarray'

The plight of Bernard Matthews, the firm at the centre of the UK bird flu outbreak, is considered by the papers.

The Times and the Guardian are in agreement that the Suffolk outbreak has left the Bernard Matthews poultry empire "in disarray".

The Daily Telegraph charts Matthews' rise from a rough upbringing in Norfolk to a £300m fortune and asks: "Can Mr Bootiful bounce back from disaster?"

The Sun says he once told the Queen: "I can't come, I've got flu."

Paternity battle

The tragic tale of the former Playboy centrefold, Anna Nicole Smith, who died in Florida, appears in all the papers.

Most report that Ms Smith's death has kick-started a paternity battle by three men claiming to be the biological father of her five-month-old baby.

The Daily Mirror says whoever is ruled to be the father stands to inherit her estate which could be worth £274m.

The Sun reports she told her boyfriend she wanted to die in a similar way to her idol Marilyn Monroe.

Lincoln comparisons

The impending entry of Barack Obama into the race to be the Democratic presidential candidate has caused plenty of excitement in the papers.

The Independent dubs him the "first African-American candidate with a realistic chance of winning".

Mr Obama will launch his campaign at the very place where Abraham Lincoln made the Proclamation of Emancipation in 1863 which freed black slaves.

The Times says, like Lincoln, he wants to be seen as a candidate for unity.